A few more prayers than normal will be offered up this week at Amen Corner, that famous stretch of holes 11-13 at Augusta National Golf Club.

The toughest hole there, at least statistically, just got tougher.

Thirty-six pine trees, measuring 25 to 35 feet high, have been added to the right side of the fairway on the par-4 11th hole for the 2004 Masters Tournament.

Most of the field got its first look at the change Monday. One exception was the player who would seem to be the most curious about any alteration to the hole.

Nick Faldo (Stats | Bio) , who won two of his three Masters titles in sudden-death playoffs that ended on No. 11, played only the front nine during his first day at the course, then practiced.

"I haven't seen it yet," Faldo said.

The change is a break in philosophy for the tournament, which generally makes changes on holes it is trying to strengthen to keep pace with technology and other advances.

Not so with No. 11, a 490-yarder that played as the most difficult hole in the 2003 Masters, with a 4.412 stroke scoring average.

"I thought it was one of the hardest holes on the course already," Brad Faxon (Stats | Bio) said.

Jose Maria Olazabal (Stats | Bio) of Spain hits his second shot near the new trees along the 11th hole. The trees are one of two changes to the course this year. The other was made on No. 13, where the green was rebuilt and a heating and cooling system was installed. (Chris Thelen/Augusta Chronicle)

Most people think the devilish par-3 12th is the toughest hole at Amen Corner. In truth, it's the most famous, not the most difficult. No. 12 ranked as the fourth-hardest in 2003.

The trees on No. 11 not only were placed in the landing area of the right side of fairway, but they extend to the right, covering part of the area where the gallery previously walked. In the past, balls that hit in that area rocketed down the slope toward the green.

"It would run, run and run," Faxon said.

The change at No. 11 "continues our long-standing emphasis of accuracy off the tee," said Hootie Johnson, the Augusta National and Masters Tournament chairman.

"It makes the tee shot much more difficult, the precision you need," Faxon said. "It was never a hole where you thought, 'Boy, this is a tough tee shot.' Now it's a tough tee shot."

Indeed, the days of players hitting a sweeping left-to-right fade on the hole are over. Now they have to thread the shot through a narrow chute.

"You can't get it curving much either way or you're in trouble," said Raymond Floyd, who won the 1976 Masters and lost the 1990 Masters in a sudden-death playoff to Faldo that ended on No. 11.

"It looks like you've got to basically hit a straight shot," Stuart Appleby (Stats | Bio) said. "It's now a straight drive with a little bit of a ground hook."

"I never hit it to the right side anyway, so it doesn't bother me," said Craig Stadler (Stats | Bio) , the 1982 Masters champion. "It is more playable from the left side now; they cleared out a lot of brush."

From the tee, the hole doesn't look any different; the new trees are hidden over the rise in the fairway. Looking back from the green and up the hill to the landing area, though, it appears that half of the fairway is gone, replaced by the trees.

"It's a totally different look to the hole," Faxon said.

"They've got plenty of trees to go around, no doubt," Stadler said.

The tree complex serves the same purpose as previous additions to the right sides of Nos. 15 and 17. Players who hit shots there don't have a clear view of the greens. Plus, water guards the greens on Nos. 11 and 15.

"I took a look, and you have no shot," Appleby said of No. 11. "They're probably planted 10-12 feet apart. You're just going to have to chip it out and maybe advance it 50 yards."

Faxon wishes the trees had been spaced farther apart, allowing a player to try a recovery shot and have a go at the green.

"Those are pretty dense trees," he said. "I like it where you have shots and create shots. It'd be nice to see somebody hit it in there and go for it. Now you kind of have no option."

"You'd have to be pretty lucky to get it through there," Floyd said.

Most players liked the change. Floyd called it "fantastic; it makes it a great hole again."

Fuzzy Zoeller (Stats | Bio) , the 1979 Masters champion, who won his title in a sudden-death playoff that ended on No. 11, was one of the dissenters.

"Personally, I don't like it," Zoeller said. "It's not good for the spectators. To me, the right side is the right way to go down into it (the green). But whatever, everybody has to play it."

Changes to the course have been constant since the first Masters in 1934. More than 80 changes to holes are documented in the tournament's media guide, and that doesn't include some of the smaller ones that players discovered only once they played the course.

"I never played a year at Augusta in 50 years that there was not some changes in the golf course, whether it was a mound or whether it was a sand trap, whether it was a tee backing up a little bit, whether it was a green being reshaped," Arnold Palmer (Stats | Bio) said. "They changed it every year in some manner or other."

Other than No. 11, the only change for the 2004 Masters came on the final leg of Amen Corner. The green on the 13th hole was rebuilt, and a heating and cooling system was installed.

Par 4, 490 yards